Grammatical Names And Functions In English

Grammatical Names And Functions In English

Clauses and Phrases

Phrases and clauses are two common grammatical names in English. Whereas a phrase is defined as a word or group of words without a finite verb which has meaning and has a particular linguistic function, a clause is defined as a word or group of words with a finite verb (finite clauses) or with a non-finite verb (non-finite clause), may make a complete sense (independent clauses) or may not make a complete sense (dependent causes) and has a particular linguistic function.

A clause is different from a phrase typically by the absence of a verb in a phrase. In Modern Grammar, a phrase is also know as a Group. There are five common types of phrases in English and they include Noun Phrases, Adjectival Phrases, Verbal Phrases, Adverbial Phrases and Prepositional Phrases. Clauses on the other hand include: Noun Clauses, Adjectival Clauses and Adverbial Clauses.

Noun Phrases

A Noun phrase is also known as a Nominal Phrases and it is headed by a noun or a pronoun. To identity a noun phrase from a sentence we ask the questions: 'what', 'who', 'whom' or 'where' in place of the phrase. If the question is logical and the phrase can directly answer the question, then it is a noun phrase.

A noun phrase can be a word e.g. man, boy, house, he, she, they, etc. These are simple noun phrases. A noun phrase can also be complex. Complex noun phrases have some words coming before the noun Head represented by "H". The words coming before the noun head are known as Modifiers represented by "M".

Examples:

i. The (M) man (H)

ii. The (M) two (M) houses (H)

A noun phrase can also have some words coming after the noun head, telling you more about the noun (head). When this is so, such words are known as qualifiers represented by "Q".

Examples:

i. The (M) house (H) in the street (Q)

ii. The (M) man (H) behind the tree (Q)

iii. Stars (H) above (Q)

Grammatical Functions of Noun Phrases

Noun phrases function as nouns in a sentence and these grammatical functions are discussed below:

- As Subject (S) of the Verb of a Sentence

Examples:

1. The man behind my back (S) is (P) a thief (C)

Let us use our question method to test whether the grammatical name is really a noun!

Question: "Who" is a thief?

Answer: The man behind my back

2. Stars above (S) are much (P)

Question: "What" are much?

Answer: Stars above

- As Object (O) of the Verb of a Sentence

A noun phrase can also function as a object of a sentence.

Examples:

1. Mary (S) saw (P) the man in a white shirt (O).

There are two types of object: direct (Dir) and indirect object (Ind). Let us consider the examples below:

2. John (S) gave (P) him (Ind) a book (Dir)

Note that the ' giving object' is the indirect object and it normally comes first while the one 'receiving object' is the direct object and normally comes last.

- As Complement (C) of a Sentence

A noun phrase can also function as the complement of a sentence. The complement of a sentence is that part of a sentence which tells us more about either the subject or object of a sentence. They are objects referring to the subject or object.

A noun phrase can function as the object or subject complement of a sentence

• Noun phrases functioning as the subject complement e.g.

3. John (S) is (P) the new Vice President (C)

4. Peter (S) is (P) the chairman of his father's company (C)

• Noun phrases functioning as the object complement e.g.

5. John (S) made (P) his father (O) a proud man (C)

- As Apposition/Appositive in a Sentence

An Appositive is that part of a sentence that tells more about the subject or object but unlike the complement, comes immediately after the subject or object. Appositions are also referred to as two nouns in same subject or object position referring to each other.

Examples:

1. Mohammed Buhari (S), the President of Nigeria (A) is (P) my uncle (C)

2. I (S) saw (P) Frank Okotie (O), the pastor of my church (A)

- As Object of Preposition

In this function, the noun phrase will come after a preposition.

Examples:

1. I saw her behind a slim man.

Question: I saw her behind "where"?

Answer: a slim man

Where "behind" is the preposition.

2. The girl fainted during the class.

Question: The girl fainted during "When"?

Answer: the class

Where "during " is the preposition.

We continue in the next article.